UT gets $700,000 in USDA grants to study drought, solutions

1:01 AM,
Apr. 4, 2013

The nation's worst drought since 2007 created a hay shortage that increased hay and cattle prices. The drought also affected rancher and hay producer Scott Woolfolk of Jackson, Tenn., in the fall of 2012.

Written by

Duane W. Gang
| The Tennessean

Last year's drought was the worst in 50 years. In Tennessee, more than a third of the state's weather stations set records for heat. The temperature in Nashville hit 109 degrees, and June was the city's second driest on record.

Now, the University of Tennessee has received two grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help research ways to cope with future drought and the impact of a changing climate on the region's livestock and farmland.

The money, nearly $700,000 from the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, will help fund research into drought-tolerant grass fed to ...